Author of YA fantasy series The Landskapë Saga

What’s in a Name? – Freja

This is the first in a series of blog posts I’m calling What’s in a Name? which aspires to enlighten not the famous question itself, whether a rose would by any other name smell as sweet (I’ll leave that up to those with special semantics skills), but to shed light upon the characters of The Landskapë Saga and, thus, illuminate the stories, the energy and, in some cases, the conflict behind their named existence.

NB! These posts include some spoilers.

Freja
( /ˈfreɪə/; )

Freja Evenson is the main character of The Landskapë Saga (TLS). She is 18 years old as the series begins, not at all fearless (heights don’t sit well with her for example), and with a big heart full of love for her near and empathy for those in need.

Freyja by John Bauer

Her name stems from the Norse goddess Freyja who’s usually associated with love, sex, fertility, beauty, gold, death and war. She is the overseer of the afterlife where she receives half of those who die in battle (the half that doesn’t go to Odin), and weeps red tears for her absent husband whom she seeks under various pseudonyms.

As the child conceived from the result of the forbidden love (or bias) between a Master of the Élan and of the Trew, my Freja’s very existence makes her a symbol for the things her namesake represents. She is a vessel for the struggle between emotion and rationalism that rules Masters. She is also at once a symbol for the openness she and her friends go to war defending, as well as the manifestation of the nightmare scenario the other side is battling to keep at bay.

The goddess generously sharing her name with Freja is also known for carrying a necklace and keeping a boar by her side, but that’s where the material similarities end between them. My Freja definitely shares some foundation with the Norse goddess, some innate power runs through both their bodies, but she is a woman of her own being. Her personality finds its tangent more in the literary history of her fellow sisters than anywhere else. She has the loyalty of Katniss, the empathy of Lyra, the courage of a Gryffindor and a similar disregard for society’s expectations as many female protagonists that have gone before her.

But she is also a human being (or has been raised as one at least) and this superpower sets her aside from the other Masters. Her social skills, her empathy, her rich emotional inner life and her ability to feel with other beings is rare in the world into which she ventures and it is the quality they assume is a weakness that is her special strength and that makes her different.

If Freyja looked desperately for her absent husband, my Freja would never stop looking for an absent friend.